Mahmoud al-Zahar

Mahmoud al-Zahar (1945-) was Foreign Minister of the Palestinian National Authority from 20 March 2006 to 18 March 2007, succeeding Nasser al-Kidwa and preceding Ziad Abu Amr. al-Zahar was also a co-founder of the Hamas political party.

Biography
Mahmoud al-Zahar was born in Jerusalem, Mandatory Palestine in 1945, the son of a Palestinian father and an Egyptian mother. He graduated from Cairo University in 1971, and he became the adviser to the Palestinian Health Minister and helped create both the Palestinian Medical Society and the Islamic University of Gaza. In 1987, al-Zahar was one of the co-founders of Hamas, and he remained a senior official and spokesperson for the group. On 10 September 2003, an Israeli F-16 jet dropped a large bomb over his house in Gaza, killing his son Khalid and a personal bodyguard and wounding him, his daughter Rima, and 20 others. This action was undertaken in response to Hamas suicide bombing tactics during the Second Intifada, and 2,000 mourners at the funerals of the victims called on Hamas to avenge the deaths. In 2008, al-Zahar's other son Hussam was killed when the Israeli Air Force bombed a carload of Hamas fighters in northern Gaza. From 2006 to 2007, he served as Foreign Minister of the Palestinian National Authority, and he later returned to being a senior Hamas official.